


Movie Nights

by Scandiacablessing



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow, Ward - Fandom
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Pining, Useless Lesbians, Wine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:14:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21583606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scandiacablessing/pseuds/Scandiacablessing
Summary: There had been something fun about wine and crackers and old movies, about being challenged.
Relationships: Victoria Dallon | Glory Girl/Ashley Stillons II | Damsel of Distress | Swansong, Victoria Dallon | Glory Girl/Ashley Stillons | Damsel of Distress
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	1. Night Off

Ashley extended her legs along the leather couch as she leant on her side toward the arm of the couch and the pillow that she had placed there, assuming a reclined position that was relaxed but still elegant. It was her night off, and she was going to be decadent. She had her best silk robe on, she’d pulled out some good wine (a hard thing to find in the City), she’d splurged on some good charcuterie; everything required for a proper viewing of a classic film.

As the beta player booted up, her thoughts drifted to her team. They were set on a job that was meant to be low-risk tonight. It was just a patrol, but sometimes things happened. Kenzie was bright and capable, but she’d gotten injured a a worrying amount lately. Rain had started as a veritable scarecrow, ready to crumble at any moment, but he had grown to a point where he could stand on a team and fight by her side. Then there was Victoria. She’d gained much respect for the other woman over their time on the team together. She was capable, intelligent, proficient in her craft, graceful, beautiful, and-

Ashley’s thoughts ground to a halt momentarily. At… any rate, Victoria was one of the few people she felt were of a high enough calibre that she admired them. At the very least, she trusted her to look after Breakthrough, after Kenzie, for one night.

Not long after her first sip of wine, Ashley heard what sounded like a head slumping against the door, followed by keys in the lock.  
Victoria opened the door and stepped inside. She looked frustrated and haggard, the braid of her hair losing several strands. Ashley eyed her up and down pointedly.

__I should have been there. They needed me, and I wasn’t there._ _

“How bad?” she asked, carefully putting her legs under her and standing carefully to avoid spilling the wine.  
“Not terrible, just frustrating. We ran into Hookline again, beat him, and had to let him go. No means to try or process him established enough that he’s a priority. It feels like we’re getting nowhere, and I’m tired of it.”  
The tension in Ashley drained somewhat as she sat back down. She felt relief wash over her.  
“You could always try villainy? I think you would make for a very adequate second. Or, rather, third; behind my sister and myself, of course.” She smiled.  
Victoria met her gaze, raising an eyebrow.

_That’s a novel sensation…_

“I think we both make better heroes,” Victoria said, with a bit of amusement “At any rate, sorry to disturb you. I’m just going to try to decompress a bit before I get some sleep.”  
“You’re welcome to join, if you’d like. The film is a classic, there’s wine and charcuterie.”

Victoria considered for a moment. “That actually sounds like a godsend right now. Let me shower and change first?”

Ashley deftly banished a picture that had attempted to form in her mind. “If you must. Don’t make me wait too long.”

Roughly fifteen minutes later, Victoria returned, wet hair in a braid and wearing clean clothing that seemed a bit more elegant than leisure wear. She stepped around the back of the couch, sitting down next to Ashley and moving the charcuterie board and the wine bottle from the counter to the coffee table. She stretched a bit, then sat straight-backed next to Ashley.

“Anything else I can get? Compensation for making you wait?”

“Top me up, and we’ll be even.”

Victoria smiled - small, like always, and never without that hint of sadness behind her eyes - and picked up the bottle and began filling both glasses. When she passed Ashley’s glass to her, their fingers softly touched for the briefest of moments.

Ashley felt a flare deep in her stomach and quickly took a sip of wine to drown it. Such uncontrolled feelings over so small a touch were unbecoming. Unacceptable, even.  
She picked up the remote to play the film.

*****************

The movie was old, and Victoria had never really taken the time to watch classics, but wine, nice cheese and idle conversation with Ashley were quickly winning her over. It had taken her a while to understand the woman that was now her roommate, but funnily enough, the process seemed to speed up when they started living together. It also certainly helped that Swansong was coming into her own as a hero, which gave Victoria something of a swell of pride whenever she considered it.

After about twenty minutes, Victoria started feeling tipsy. It had been a while since she’d drank. It put her in mind of better times. Parties at Dean’s house, the fun and libations of rich teenagers. What she was feeling now felt different, though. More relaxed. There wasn’t an unthinkable horror lurking at the edges, unlike the memories. Not unless she let it in.

By the time another twenty minutes had passed, Victoria’s body was starting to become very tired. She’d been tired when she sat down, of course, but she’d wanted to take her mind off feeling powerless, after the night’s events. As her body seemed to lose more and more energy, the couch seemed to get proportionally softer. Bit by bit, she extended her legs out down the length of the couch, then leaning the other way. Her head was swimming a bit, so she found a position where she couldn’t seem to find a single point of discomfort outside of that, and settled in.

_This feels….nice._

All the while her attention didn’t slip from the greyscale images and beautiful music on the screen. It wasn’t long before she dozed off, feeling the soft, silky warmth of the couch beneath her cheek, comfortable enough to almost suck the wakefulness out of her.

*****************

Ashley froze.  
In her wine-induced relaxation, she hadn’t fully noticed as Victoria leaned into her, eventually placing her head on Ashley’s thigh. It was like a spark jumped from her thigh to her stomach.

_Her hair is so soft._

Fire filled her from deep within, and there was no dousing it with wine. The bottle was empty. She couldn’t get more, because if she moved she might wake Victoria. Would Victoria want to be woken up? Should Ashley let her sleep, because she had spent all evening working and fighting? Because Victoria might not be able to get to sleep otherwise, with the frequency and severity of the nightmares she’d been having?

_Is it wrong for me to let her stay like this?_

Ashley resolved to wake her up before she went to bed herself, at the end of the movie. To let Victoria sleep for a bit.

_She deserves to have this, even if just for a few minutes._

It was a good plan, but few plans survive contact with the enemy. In this case, the enemy was the passage of several minutes and the ever-increasing weight on her eyelids. She lasted maybe fifteen minutes, before the world fell away to a comfortable oblivion.


	2. Wake Up

Victoria awoke to the sun shining in through the window. She still felt a little groggy, but overall felt more rested than usual. Where her muscles usually felt tight and achy in the morning, this morning they felt just a little more relaxed. Any other time, sleeping on the couch would have left her with a crick in the neck, but this pillow was just perfect…

_Wait. We don’t have any silk couch pillows._

With that her eyes burst open, and she noticed that her head was nestled right in Ashley’s lap.

_Shit. Shit. Fucking shitfuck._

Doing her best to move as little as possible, she looked up into the face of her improvised pillow. Fast asleep. Thank god.

Lingering for a moment, Victoria used her flight to silently and carefully escape from this most awkward of situations back to her room. When she got there, the immediate urgency of the situation passed, her thoughts flickered around on the how it must have happened. Among those flickers was a recall of similar nights with Dean. It was almost nice until these feelings connected to those she’d felt around Engel, and before that… no. She banished the thought, moving toward her bed to throw herself into the distraction that was her physio routine.

Throughout her routine, she noticed that every stretch was just slightly easier, less hellish. Even the fucking dips weren’t as awful as usual. Somehow. Her mind wandered to the previous night, how it had almost made her forget the incident with Hookline.

How it had made her feel something close to safe.

_********_

Ashley awoke to the sound of the shower turning on. Looking around, she realized she wasn’t in her room. Victoria must have been mortified when she woke up - not entirely unfounded of her, either, considering Ashley’s lapse in letting it happen.  


She got up and stretched, feeling oddly rested for having slept in a sitting position. The thought struck that it was possibly due to the company she’d had, rather than the position in which she’d slept. She considered how she was going to navigate the surely awkward interaction she would have with Victoria after last night.

Ashley’s breakfast plans with Kenzie weren’t for another half-hour, so while Victoria was in the shower, she prepared some food, leaving Victoria’s out on the counter for her. Aiming to avoid running into Victoria before she was ready in as graceful and sophisticated a manner as she could, Ashley waited for Victoria to be just about ready to leave her room, and rushed into the bathroom just before her door opened.

Graceful and sophisticated.

******** 

Victoria exited her room slowly, peeking around the hallway and into the kitchen as she heard the shower turn on. There were two plates set on the counter, covered up to preserve heat. One was a poached egg on an English muffin with a scone. The other was a delicious-looking breakfast hash with sweet and regular potatoes, sautéed onions, peppers, and shredded chicken. It had a post-it with a ‘V’ on the covering.

_Did she make this for me? Usually she just makes extra of what she was having…_

Victoria made a point to repay the nice gesture by cleaning the kitchen and living room, washing up the charcuterie board and glasses from last night before digging into the hash. As per her first estimation, it was delicious.

It took about ten minutes after Victoria started eating for Ashley to re-emerge, joining her in the kitchen. Her movements were slightly stiff, and she wasn’t making eye contact. Even still, her hair was trailing behind her like it was weightless, the dress she’d changed into hanging lightly over her shoulders. She looked… regal, despite the stilted movement. Victoria chalked the stiffness up to sleeping sitting up on the couch.

“Thank you for making breakfast, Ash. It’s… transcendent,” She said, feeling out the tension with a word that Ashley would normally respond well to.

“It ought to be,” Ashley said, moving around the kitchen island over to the counter and beginning to move things around. From behind, her body language shifted a bit. Proud. Chin just a little bit higher. “If you wouldn’t mind letting me have the island, I have breakfast with Kenzie.”

Victoria finished what was left on the plate, then took it to the sink to wash. She looked down, swallowing deeply.

“Ash?”

The other woman looked up, finally making eye contact.

“Thanks for letting me interrupt you, last night. It was fun.”

Ashley didn’t respond at first. She seemed to focus on her task of setting up the computer.

“If you have any other older films you’d like to watch, maybe I could join you again?”

An image went through Victoria’s mind unbidden, warmth and softness inside while the outside seemed so cold and harsh. She moved past the image and turned away, focusing on washing the plate.

Ashley was silent for a moment, and Victoria’s sternum felt a little bit heavy. Like a weight was on it.

_Maybe she knows that I fell asleep on her and feels awkward._

That strange anxious feeling gave her pause. Maybe she should just drop it.

“I would enjoy that. You seem to have sufficient taste to appreciate the classics.”

Victoria couldn’t deny the relief she felt at that. Ashley clearly didn’t know. She must have fallen asleep first.

“Sounds good to me. Are there any that you’re hoping to see in particular?”

“Rest assured, I have a list that I’m working my way down. The next on the list is Citizen Kane.”

“Alright. If we do it next Wednesday, I can pick up the wine, cheese and meat.”

“Good. I trust that you’ll pick a sufficient spread.”

With that, Ashley became occupied with her Kenzie Breakfast, and Victoria rushed a bit to finish getting ready and leave the apartment, noting that she was cutting it close to meet with Sveta at her apartment, sparing a backwards glance before she left that she was pretty sure went unseen. She was looking forward to next week.

**Author's Note:**

> Special Thanks to TKJarrah for looking over this for me! And to Wildbow for writing the source material.


End file.
